Kasparas Jakucionis drilled a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 39 seconds left to highlight a late nine-point run that lifted Illinois to an 88-80 Big Ten victory over No. 18 Purdue on Friday night in the regular-season finale for both teams in Champaign, Ill.
Freshman Will Riley scored 22 points and Tre White added 20 points and nine rebounds as the Fighting Illini (20-11, 12-8 Big Ten) pulled off a 13-1 run over the final two minutes.
Junior guard Braden Smith nearly pulled off his first triple-double for the Boilermakers (21-10, 13-7). He played all 40 minutes and produced 18 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds. Trey Kaufman-Renn led all scorers with 29 points, but only managed six in the final 12 minutes as the Fighting Illini rallied from a 10-point deficit.
Illinois jumped to a 17-10 lead with 13:47 left in the first half as Tomislav Ivisic and Riley drilled back-to-back 3-pointers. At that juncture, the Illini were 3-for-3 on 3-pointers — but they proceeded to miss their next 11 shots from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Smith and Kaufman-Renn took over at the other end. Smith drove for consecutive layups to give the Boilermakers a 27-21 lead, and Kaufman-Renn hit three straight shots — two on feeds from Smith — to push the margin to 33-25 with 5:13 left in the half.
Illinois pulled within 42-40 at the break as Riley cashed a 25-footer with less than a second on the clock to snap the host’s errant 3-point streak.
Purdue seized its biggest lead at 63-53 on Smith’s driving layup with 11:34 to go, but Illinois responded with 10 quick points. White’s corner 3-pointer forged a 63-63 tie with 8:46 left. When Ben Humrichous swished a trey from the other corner at the 7:39 mark, the Illini claimed their first lead about midway through the first half.
The teams swapped the lead four times down the stretch before Illinois embarked on its winning run.
Humrichous hit a 3-pointer and a free throw, Jakucionis canned his high-arcing trey over Purdue center Caleb Furst, and Riley added two free throws to make it 84-79 with 23 seconds left.
Meanwhile, Purdue missed its final six shots and might miss out on a Big Ten tournament double-bye for the first time in five years. If Wisconsin and Maryland win this weekend, the Boilermakers would fall to the No. 5 seed.
–Field Level Media
